The President's Executive Orders - Not As Reported

I have just finished reviewing the president's executive actions on firearms.. The bottom line is that it is by no means what he says it is or what has been reported in the media.  Here is a brief summary and review:

1) Private firearms sales

Much has been made about this, but looking at the details, THERE IS NOTHING NEW HERE.  Indeed, his policy is nothing but a rehash of the legal precedent regarding who must have a Federal Firearms License (FFL) - he did not rewrite existing law.  It seems that his intent is - for the first time in his administration - to actually enforce existing law.  It is certainly possible that his actual order may be different from what is posted on Whitehouse.gov, but barring that, there is no rewrite of existing law regarding private sales.

It seems as if the intent here is to frighten average citizens out of selling guns from their private collections (something current law allows) by raising the issue of prosecution.  

It should be noted that this has nothing to do with background checks.  People can and have been convicted of "being in the business of selling firearms" even when every single transaction has gone through a dealer with background checks conducted.  So private sellers that go through a dealer and get a background check on the buyer still must fear prosecution.

What he could have done, but did not, would have been to open the background check system to private sellers on a voluntary basis.  This would have resulted in many more background checks - but that does not seem to have been his intent.

2) Class 3 weapons

In this case, he is going to require a background check on every member of a trust when they apply to buy such weapons.  The biggest effect will not be upon firearms, but upon the booming (pun intended) suppressor industry.   This will also trigger a law enforcement sign off, which some department heads simply refuse to do 100% of the time.

In this case, he may very well be illegally changing existing law.

3) Increase reporting of prohibited persons to background check system (NICS)

Generally good and backed by both sides in the gun debate.  The gun industry has been pushing for better reporting for years, as has the NRA.

The only problem here is a big one - he is ordering the Social Security Administration to report anyone declared incompetent to NICS.  It sounds reasonable until you realize that most of these people simply are receiving help with handling their money.  They are not crazy or dangerous.  Additionally, this will result in the seizure of any firearms they own - preventing them from being passed down to relatives.  This is already happening with people on VA Disability and guns have been seized.  This subjects MILLIONS of Americans to the loss of their 2nd Amendment rights and potential seizure of their firearms.  This one is huge and needs to be stopped.

4) Ensure that dealers notify law enforcement about the theft or loss of their guns

This is massively deceptive and is being misreported.  Dealers have always had to report thefts from their inventory - in fact they have to track each and every gun.  This change will require dealers and distributors to report the lost of guns in transit - SOMETHING THAT THE INDUSTRY IS ALREADY DOING.  In short, it's no big deal.

5) Pushing of Smart Gun Technology

Simply ordering research into the technology is not a problem.  The NRA and other gun rights groups do not oppose this.  One actual positive is that the order directs federal law enforcement to consider acquiring so called "smart guns".  It is good because they are unlikely to use them unless they work 100% of the time.

The problem is that there is a history of requiring so called smart gun technology as soon as it is available.  This would result in massive price increases and the first models are likely to be unreliable.  In short, this is something to watch, but is no big deal at this point.


So, there it is - as is so frequently the case - the press has gotten most of it wrong.  Of course, all of the above is subject to change if and when more details become public.